User talk:Jeny kaizen
Hi, In 1958, Bank of America launched its pioneering BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California. The product idea was that of a bank branch manager, who stopped by a local store and observed clerks in a back room preparing customers' monthly bills. It struck him as inefficient to spend so much time (and money) to prepare and collect bills that were often for paltry amounts, and he wondered if the process could be efficiently centralized, with his bank's computer preparing the bills in off-hours. The original goal of the company was to offer the system across California; however in 1965 the bank began subscribing licensing agreements with a group of banks outside of California. Over the following 11 years, various banks licensed the card system from Bank of America, forming a network of banks backing the BankAmericard system across the United States. 2 During this same time period, licences for the BankAmericard system also started to be implemented in other countries. For example: In Canada, an alliance of banks (including Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Banque Canadienne Nationale and Bank of Nova Scotia) issued credit cards under the Chargex name from 1968 to 1977. In France, it was known as Carte Bleue (Blue Card). The logo still appears on many French-issued VISA cards today. In the UK, the only BankAmericard issuer for some years was Barclaycard. In 1970, Bank of America gave up control of the BankAmericard program. The various BankAmericard issuer banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), an independent non-stock corporation which would be in charge of managing, promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United States, although Bank of America continued to issue and support the international licenses themselves. By 1972, licenses had been granted in 15 countries. In 1974, IBANCO, a multinational member corporation, was founded in order to manage the international BankAmericard program In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that bringing the various international networks together into a single network with a single name internationally would be in the best interests of the corporation; however in many countries, there was still reluctance to issue a card associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature. For this reason, in 1977 BankAmericard, Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag. NBI became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International. The term Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries, and that it also denoted universal acceptance. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association. In October 2007, Bank of America announced it was resurrecting the BankAmericard brand name as the "BankAmericard Rewards Visa."3 October 11, 2006, Visa announced that some of its businesses would be merged and become a publicly traded company, Visa Inc.456 Under the IPO restructuring, Visa Canada, Visa International, and Visa U.S.A. were merged into the new public company. Visa's Western Europe operation became a separate company, owned by its member banks who will also have a minority stake in Visa Inc.7 In total, more than 35 investment banks participated in the deal in several capacities, most notably as underwriters. The law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell served as counsel to the underwriters, while the law firm White & Case LLP served as counsel to Visa Inc. in the global restructuring process. On October 3, 2007, Visa completed its corporate restructuring with the formation of Visa Inc. The new company was the first step towards Visa's IPO.8 The second step came on November 9, 2007 when the new Visa Inc. submitted its $10 billion IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).9 On February 25, 2008 Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of half its shares.10 The IPO took place on March 18, 2008. Visa sold 406 million shares at US$44 per share ($2 above the high end of the expected $37-42 pricing range), raising US$17.9 billion in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history.11 On March 20, 2008, the IPO underwriters (including JP Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Banc of America Securities LLC, Citi, HSBC, Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Investment Bank and Wachovia Securities) exercised their overallotment option, purchasing an additional 40.6 million shares, bringing Visa's total IPO share count to 446.6 million, and bringing the total proceeds to US$19.1 billion.12 Visa now trades under the ticker symbol "V" on the New York Stock Exchange.13 = Jenykz http://orkut.com